Saturday, May 15th - Rancho Campeche

So it's my first day here in El Limon. About an hour west of Santo Domingo. Today was a get-to-know-each-other-by-playing-stupid-games day. My leaders are nice, they are helpful, they are caring... But there is really no need for 28 girls ages 19-21 to be treated like we're 5. We had to sit on the floor in 2 teams and pick one person to sit in front. There was a bed sheet put up between the 2 of us and when it fell down we had to say the other person's name. WHAT?! Ok now. If we just talk to each other we will figure out the names of everyone. I'm pretty sure all of us complained about our "ice breaker" games. After we played a few little kid games, we finally got to do some work! We got split up into teams for teaching. We went over the actual set of plans and the things we had to teach the little kids. The fun part was coming up with the ways in which we would teach. I was in a pair with another girl and we signed up to teach how to say "my name is... What is your name?" We also taught feelings and how to say "I am happy," or "I am angry." Of course we made a game out of it because what little kid doesn't like games?

The way the actual volunteer part went was on an every other day basis. One day I would be teaching the kids, and the next I would be at the construction site cleaning up, pick axing, or laying a concrete floor. The floor was for an annex that was going to be placed next to the school for a study center. Since most of the little kids didn't have shoes, the floor was to help prevent disease that could be picked up from the dirt. We aren't going to be starting the volunteer part until Tuesday since today is election day. The government system in the Dominican is crazy and all done at the last minute. Now Monday is considered a holiday because of the election so nothing is going to be open. It's so crazy here that if it rains, kids don't go to school. The way the kids were picked for the HEP project (Health Education Program) was by attendance at their normal school and behavior. There is a total of 500 or so students in the area and about 40 were chosen for this program.

After we got all of our lesson plans taken care of, we went on a walk to the local village where they were celebrating the election. There were many, many people packed in the front yard with a band on the inside of this tiny, tiny house. Of course everyone was dancing and laughing and having just the best time. These people don't care that they don't have anything. They literally don't have anything. Maybe it's because they don't know any different, they don't know what it's like to have shoes! It was mind boggling to me that they were so happy, always smiling, just having a grand ol' time but they little things didn't matter. The thing that was very obvious was all the dancing. Dancing and moving is a very important part of the culture in the Dominican Republic. Good thing I learned how to dance earlier this week. What a trip! When it was time to leave this little shin-dig, we started walking away and the kids kept following us. They followed us down the street and back to the driveway for Rancho Campeche. They couldn't go any farther than the gates, but they really went all the way back. It was a good mile or so down the road from their housing. I don't know if you could really call these places "houses" but they were good enough for them.